


A Little More Gently

by Over_Blackout



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-17
Updated: 2014-03-17
Packaged: 2018-01-16 02:07:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1327927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Over_Blackout/pseuds/Over_Blackout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The ablution block is silent, the sound of running water stopped over half an hour ago and you cannot concentrate on anything else. It is the absence of noise you are getting slightly worried about. </p><p>The bite he left on your shoulder is throbbing slightly and the most insane urge to check if he is okay keeps bubbling up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little More Gently

The ablution block is silent, the sound of running water stopped over half an hour ago and you cannot concentrate on anything else. The absence of noise you are getting slightly worried about. Eridan is not usually a quiet person, to be honest. 

His legs might have given out, you theorize - you hadn't seen each other for half a perigee and things got a little...intense - the bite he left on your shoulder is throbbing slightly. The most insane urge to check if he is okay keep bubbling up, but you are trying _so hard_ to ignore it. You write the same line of code 4 times before pushing away from the desk, giving in. The walk toward the ablution hatch is soundless, your footsteps unconsciously muffled, your hand closes on the handle, it's not locked, so you carefully push it open.

The block looks empty at first glance, everything soundless and unmoving, almost untouched, and you almost miss him. Eridan is lying the ablution trap, eyes closed, so still that the water he is submerged in is a clear surface, an unbroken viewing plane – like he has been trapped in crystal, preserved for your eyes only. Something flutters in your stomach and you stamp down on it. Hard. You step towards the tub, but Eridan makes no move to show he heard or felt your entrance when you crouch next to it.

He looks different, _feels_ different, like this - more...vulnerable, unguarded and you find him _exquisite_. The wall between Eridan and the world is down for precious moments, he is unburdened by his self-consciousness, his self-loathing and doubt. You know. You know a lot things about Eridan, even the stuff he tries so hard to hide. You know he wears so many layers and covers himself from head to toe. You know why he hides behind a scowl and a sneering attitude, constantly on the defence to the outside world. You know he is so small, so lonely and _completely_ breakable. 

Hair free-floats around his face and you trace the long sweep of his lashes with your eyes, the arched angle of cheekbones and the straight line of the his nose. Hie lips are full and curved, still slightly swollen and split in the center from your biting kisses. Your gaze trails down, over his elegant throat, over the delicate a linement of his collarbones, his chest and the gills that line his sides. The filaments hold you transfixed as they flutter open-shut. They are stunning - like folded silk, dyed the rich, royal purple of his blood and so thin you can see the vast webbing of veins that line them. 

Once he sheds his layers of clothes, he is slender, almost frighteningly so - all smooth skin and wiry muscles (but right now he is covered in violet bruises and puncture marks from your teeth. He is _marked_ he is _yours_. And it _thrills_ you). Eridan is clearly built for built for speed rather than strength. You have seen him in water, a slash of purple and grey as he darts back and forth, toying, mocking all others; faster and more glorious than anything else in the ocean and you highly doubt anything could catch him there. You realize that you have reached out to touch him, fingers hovering over the water's surface and you reign the urge in. You want to study him for longer, you want to drink in the sight of him like this. You take in the retractable purple, webbing beneath his fingers, the slim fins that run up the length of his calf and the relaxed length of his body. You take in everything that he hides.

He truly, truly beautiful.

Your fingers breach the water before you can stop them and Eridan's eyes snap open. They are covered by an thin, jelly-like layer that give his violet eyes a frosted, unfocused look and you are fascinated by the way they shift. He looks between your face and your fingers and you can see him begin to tense up; he looks like he is expecting you to injure him, to kick him out or something and you are suddenly angry at yourself. 

The water is slightly cooler than Eridan's body temperature, it makes goosebumps breakout along the skin of your arms as you carefully, slowly, reach out towards him. You don't want to spook him, you want him to stay here, with you, til you can figure out what the fuck is going on. He is watching - you are careful not to let anything show on your face when you trace the outline of his lips with the tips of your fingers. You trail them down his neck, down his sides, just brushing his gills and he shudders. The water ripples and reverberates round the tub, distorting the image of his face.

That's quite annoying. You want to see his expressions.

You make a cradle with your psionics and scoop him out the water, like a fish in a ne-oh. We will put a stop to that pun there. The panicked expression on his face makes you laugh as you reach for a towel on the rack behind you. You stand and hover him at waist level, his eyes are huge and confused when you wrap the towel around him, he is still expecting something hate-fuelled and he is floundering, you can see it in his face. You don't want to. You don't want to hurt him and you are lost as your blood-pusher thuds in your chest. It spreads something warm and considerably softer to anything you have ever felt for Eridan before.

'Sollux wwhat...?'

That's what you would like to know.

Eridan trails off as you move, walking out and floating him with you. You take him to the respite block and set him down on your snuggle plane, releasing your hold on him and laying down next to him. You draping yourself along his side and place one hand in the center of his chest. His heart is thudding beneath your palm; may be he can feel it too? This _change_ His breathing his speeds up when you roll and lean over him, staring him straight in eye, holding his gaze when you press your lips to his.

He makes this helpless little noise, eyes stuttering shut and damp hands coming up to hold on to your shoulders, as you lick along his bottom lip, asking permission to enter rather than _taking_ , like you normally do. His lips part and you stroke your tongue along the roof of him mouth then tangle it with his. You are careful with your teeth, gently teasing the skin of his lips, sucking them into you mouth. He shudders under you and his fingers knead your shoulders unconsciously.

You like watching him, you always have - ever since you fist got to _see_ Eridan undone beneath you. You like the hapless arc of his brow and the movement of his eyelashes when you kiss him. You like the little sounds he makes and the feel of his panting breath on the skin of your cheek. And the blushes. God, you love the blushes. One of your hands cups the back of his head, sifting through his soft, wet hair and the other stokes down his side, along the sensitive skin of his ribs. He squirms under you and makes these soft, breathy noises that drive you _insane_.

You wonder why you weren't this gentle before.

He has always been so _responsive_. He loses himself in your touches, arching and moaning and pushing into you. It makes you jealous sometimes, how he can let go and trust you to bring him to ecstasy – Arousal has always been something you can separate yourself from but control leaves you when it comes to Eridan. When he is begging and panting and yowling beneath you it makes you _crazy_ \- you can't focus on anything else.

You send some psionics skittering under his his skin, along the pleasure nerves in his spine and he arches up into you, moaning, eyes squeezed shut. You run one hand down his thigh and he spread his legs for you, wrapping them around your waist when you settle in between them. You can't do him again, he is too sensitive, you can feel it it as he shudders under you light touches, in the small shocks you send through his skin but it doesn't stop him moving into your palms. He has got to be sore and you can _see_ he is tired. It takes a momentous amount of effort to stop kissing him, to stop touching him, and it nearly kills you when he makes this needy little whine against your lips.

You break the kiss, rolling to the side and gathering him into you. He makes a small, surprised noise into your chest and you kiss the top of his head. His hairs smells of salt and violets, and you like it. He lifts his head to look at you, there is a tiny line between his eyebrows, and he opens his mouth to speak, but closes it again, teeth clicking audibly. You feels his heart thud against yours. Or is that you? He shifts on your chest, leaning closer, moving in little hesitant jerks, like he thinks you will push him away – you wouldn't – and presses a small chaste kiss to your lips. It's unbearably sweet and so _Eridan_ and it makes you smile against him mouth.

He has the most terrible blush when he pulls away and his eyes slide away from yours as he buries his head into your body again. You are flat out grinning now, you can't even deny it. 

He falls asleep not long after, becoming a cool, relaxed weight against you. You stroke his dying hair for a while, watching his sleeping face and the REM cycles happening under his eyelids. Its a good feeling, it makes you feel warm and content and everything has shrunk down to the edges of your snuggle plane. Your world contains only you and Eridan and you are okay with that. You reach over, careful not to jostle your sleeping cargo and pull a duvet over the both of you, covering Eridan gently, so as not to wake him. You kiss his forehead once more and close your eyes.

You love him a little more gently than you thought.

**Author's Note:**

> HAHAHAHAHAHA ;-; I AM SO SORRY. I ship erisol so hard, you have no idea. Oh my god this is so bad, I am so sosry thank you for reading ;-;


End file.
